Lifeissues is mainly concerned with publishing thoughtful articles directly related to issues raised in Evangelium Vitae. However, from the very beginning, we have also published a few related homilies, notably by Fr. Al Cariño, O.M.I., Fr. Tony Pueyo, and others.
Please use the pulldowns below to select a homily by Liturgical Calendar date.
Wives and husbands, you are donors of new lives in a new heaven and new earth for the family of God. The stakes for you and your own can not be greater than they were for our Blessed Mother when at Jesus' Presentation in the Temple at the hands of the priest Simeon Christ shed his blood for the first time at his circumcision and Simeon declared: "Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed - and a sword will pierce even your own soul - to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed, Luke 2:33-35. May the love of our Savior pierce your hearts, and you be converted and know the love of our Lord.
Men, what divorced or single mother's boy in your extended family needs the companionship of a man? And ladies, what girl? What boy or girl in the Big Brother Big Sister's program needs an adult mentor to spend afternoons with? You will find a Big Brothers Big Sister office in Rockford on Y Boulevard. My young boy at Big Brothers would stare at the door waiting for me, his mother told me, until I arrived. In three weeks we were fast friends. Without healthy Catholic normalcy in their lives besides their mothers your niece, nephew, or neighbor's child will, statistically speaking, fail at marriage themselves or avoid marriage and cohabitation without first encountering a positive adult man or woman' leadership. Would you want a New Year's Resolution which may save a child's life? I have just given you a great one.
If it is true that we only really know ourselves in community, especially and above all in the first and smaller community of the family, then we really do come to a deeper understanding of ourselves when we come to know the lives of the saints, because we come to a deeper understanding of our own larger family, our own siblings.